CNN
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Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate broadly agree that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump, based on a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS. The vice chairman additionally outpaced each debate watchers’ expectations for her and Joe Biden’s onstage performance in opposition to the previous president earlier this 12 months, the ballot discovered.
Debate watchers mentioned, 63% to 37%, that Harris turned in a greater efficiency onstage in Philadelphia. Previous to the controversy, the identical voters had been evenly cut up on which candidate would carry out extra strongly, with 50% saying Harris would achieve this and 50% that Trump would. And afterward, 96% of Harris supporters who tuned in mentioned that their chosen candidate had completed a greater job, whereas a smaller 69% majority of Trump’s supporters credited him with having a greater night time.
Voters who watched the controversy additionally left with improved views of Harris in contrast with their impressions pre-debate, whereas few modified their opinions of Trump general. Their views of every candidate’s strengths on the problems continued to replicate the dynamics seen in nationwide polling, with Trump holding a bonus on the economic system, immigration and being commander in chief, and Harris extra trusted on abortion and defending democracy.
The overwhelming majority who tuned in mentioned it had no impact on their presidential resolution, though among the many debate watchers, Trump supporters had been extra seemingly than Harris supporters to say the occasion gave them motive to rethink.
The outcomes of the flash ballot mark a shift from the reaction to the June presidential debate, when voters who watched the matchup between Trump and Biden mentioned, 67% to 33%, that Trump outperformed his Democratic rival. That June debate was a uncommon presidential debate win for Trump: In 2020 and 2016, Biden and Hillary Clinton had been seen by debate watchers as outperforming him throughout the presidential debates.
The ballot’s outcomes replicate opinions of the controversy solely amongst these voters who tuned in and aren’t consultant of the views of the total voting public. Debate watchers within the ballot had been 6 factors likelier to be Republican-aligned than Democratic-aligned, making for an viewers that was about 4 share factors extra GOP-leaning than all registered voters nationally.
On the finish of the night time, debate watchers reported cut up opinions of Harris: 45% mentioned they view her favorably, and 44% unfavorably. That’s an enchancment from earlier than the controversy, when 39% of the identical voters mentioned they considered her favorably. Debate watchers’ views of Trump, in the meantime, shifted little – 39% rated him favorably and 51% unfavorably following the controversy, much like his numbers among the many identical voters earlier than he took the stage.
Amongst voters who watched the controversy and establish as political independents, Harris’ favorability rose to 48% after the controversy, up from simply 30% earlier than.
Similar shares of debate watchers, 54%, mentioned that that they had a minimum of some confidence in Harris’ and Trump’s respective talents to guide the nation, with 36% saying that they had quite a lot of confidence in Trump and 32% that that they had quite a lot of confidence in Harris. In June, simply 14% who tuned in for the presidential debate between Trump and Biden expressed quite a lot of confidence in Biden’s capacity to guide.
Following the newest debate, voters who tuned in had been carefully divided over which candidate higher understands the issues dealing with folks like them, with 44% saying Harris does and 40% selecting Trump. That marks a shift in Harris’ favor from previous to the controversy, when 43% mentioned Trump had a greater understanding of their issues whereas 39% mentioned Harris did. However voters who tuned in gave Trump a 20-point benefit over Harris after the controversy on dealing with the economic system, 55% to 35% – a margin that’s barely wider than his pre-debate edge.
Debate watchers additionally gave Trump a 23-point benefit over Harris when it got here to whom they trusted to deal with immigration and a 6-point edge on dealing with the function of commander in chief. However they gave Harris a 9-point benefit on defending democracy and a 21-point benefit on whom they trusted to deal with the difficulty of abortion.
An 82% majority of registered voters who watched Tuesday’s debate say it didn’t have an effect on their alternative for president. One other 14% mentioned it made them rethink however didn’t change their minds, with 4% saying it modified their minds about whom to vote for. Debate watchers who supported Trump previous to Tuesday night time had been extra seemingly than those that supported Harris to say they had been wavering following the controversy, 23% to 12%.
The CNN ballot was performed by textual content message with 605 registered US voters who mentioned they watched the controversy Tuesday, and the ballot findings are consultant of the views of debate watchers solely. Respondents had been recruited to take part earlier than the controversy and had been chosen through a survey of members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally consultant panel recruited utilizing probability-based sampling methods. Outcomes for the total pattern of debate watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.3 share factors.
CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.